Denotations

Values of basic type can be written down (denoted) in a program text by denotations:

• <#1578#>INT<#1578#>
  Natural numbers can be written as a sequence of digits, e.g. <#1579#>3<#1579#>, <#1580#>198<#1580#>, <#1581#>10000<#1581#> are all three valid <#1582#>INT<#1582#> denotations.

  Negative numbers can be written as expressions consisting of a monadic minus operator and an <#1583#>INT<#1583#> denotation, e.g. <#1584#>-57<#1584#>, as you might have suspected.

• <#1585#>REAL<#1585#>
  Elan admits the conventional fixed point and floating point representation for (approximations) of real numbers, like <#1586#>3.1415269<#1586#>, <#1587#>1.3e-8<#1587#>.
• <#1588#>BOOL<#1588#>
  There are only two values for truth values, which are denoted by the constants <#1589#>TRUE<#1589#> and <#1590#>FALSE<#1590#> respectively. People allergic to capital letters may use the concrete standard constants <#1591#>true<#1591#> and <#1592#>false<#1592#> instead.
• <#1593#>TEXT<#1593#>
  Text denotations consist of sequences of characters enclosed in quotation marks, e.g. <#1594#>;SPMquot;Hello world!;SPMquot;<#1594#>
  All printable characters of your computer are allowed within text denotations. If a quote character is to appear in a text denotation, then it has te be doubled, e.g. <#1595#>;SPMquot;He said ;SPMquot;;SPMquot;Don't!;SPMquot;;SPMquot;;SPMquot;<#1595#> The empty text consisting of no characters is denoted by <#1596#>;SPMquot;;SPMquot;<#1596#>.